Observer Name
Court Pace
Observation Date
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Region
Ogden » Snowbasin Backcountry » Burch Creek
Location Name or Route
Burch canyon
Elevation
7,300'
Aspect
Northwest
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
3'
Width
350'
Comments
Could see the crown from the valley. Decided to poke around up Burch today and investigate the avalanche. Looks like it failed on a rain crust maybe 1 foot above the ground. Could not find any obvious facets but the crust was easily identified. Performed an ECT on the crown with it dug down to the ground. Failed on 11 on the same layer.
The debris pile was impressive about 20 feet deep at the bottom of the canyon. Trees were destroyed. The slide went wall to wall in the northwest facing drainage running about 800' from the highest point I could see. I was not able to see if the crown continued up higher to the ridge.
I've never seen a slide this big in the last 5 years frequenting this canyon. Very impressive.
there were more slides up higher in Burch on west facing slopes. These were soft slabs from the storm snow. I will include pictures of these as well. Interestingly all the slides were mainly west facing.
Coordinates